In general, magnetic recording media such as magnetic tape are manufactured by coating and drying, on a support, a magnetic paint comprising a magnetic powder, binder resin, etc. In conventional magnetic recording media, the magnetic layer is composed of a single layer, and thereby a single kind of magnetic powder has to cover a wide range from high frequency region to low frequency region. In the recent tendency toward a high density recording, which requires magnetic powders having high recording properties in a high frequency region and causing less noises, noises, magnetic powders of high Hc and high BET values have come to be used.
However, since a single kind of magnetic powder or magnetic layer constitutes a magnetic recording medium, such a magnetic recording medium is compelled to use magnetic powders with high Hc and high BET values because of importance to enhance high frequency properties, leaving low frequency properties unimproved.
In the magnetic recording medium for video tape, there is proposed a medium having multiple magnetic layers, of which uppermost layer contains hexagonal ferromagnetic powder, for the purposes of increasing magnetic recording capacities and improving magnetic recording properties in both high and low frequency regions as disclosed in Japanese Patent O. P. I. Publication Nos. 251923/1988, 79930/1989, 128228/1989, 251424/1989, 251425/1989, 251426/1989, 251427/1989.
In these known techniques, hexagonal ferromagnetic powders are contained in an uppermost magnetic layer, but hexagonal ferromagnetic powders are insufficient in low frequency characteristics; particularly, their chroma output is poor, though having high frequency output. Further, imperfect dispersion of magnetic powders in a lower layer has been left unimproved in these techniques, and thereby a very thin uppermost layer, usually 1.0 .mu.m or less, is adversely affected and loses surface smoothness, causing deterioration in electromagnetic conversion properties.
From the manufacturing point of view, magnetic layers proposed in the above techniques are formed by the wet-on-dry method which comprises coating of an upper layer after coating and drying a lower layer; therefore, coating of an upper layer becomes difficult for a thickness less than 0.5 .mu.m, this eventually brings about a low chroma output. Further, since hexagonal magnetic powders are tabular fine particles, it becomes difficult to coat them with their faces parallel to the magnetic layer as the uppermost layer gets thinner. As a result, overall electromagnetic conversion properties including high-frequency properties namely properties in a short wave side, are lowered. In addition to the above, poor adhesion between an uppermost layer and a lower layer jeopardizes durability.